[Discussions] Display Discussion Rubrics by Default

[isaac_piercy]

As a K-12, we love that Canvas has built-in rubrics for assignments. We are also thankful that whatever rubric we create is displayed prominently, just beneath the content of the assignment while in student view. This is a great reminder for middle and high school students because it is so easily seen.

For some reason, this is not true of Canvas discussions however. Rather, students must click on the "settings gear" and select "show rubric" to generate a pop up display. This is not ideal, and most of our students forget that rubrics even exist for our online discussions. As an adaptive measure we have begun taking screenshots of our discussion rubrics once they are built and then inserting them at the bottom of the discussion prompt. This is quite time consuming, but we need to do this to keep our student's replies focused and on topic.

I would propose that rubrics for discussions are displayed automatically at the bottom of every discussion prompt, just as they are for general assignments. Or, at the very least, make it a course setting: "display discussion rubrics automatically."

Thanks for considering!

[Stef_retired]

 @isaac_piercy ​, at first I used to do exactly what you've described--I took a screenshot of the rubric and included it in the discussion prompt--but for a long time now I have instead resorted to the workaround of putting instructions in every single discussion prompt explaining to students how they can access the grading rubric for that discussion.

I would love to see such a feature as the one you've submitted, but I have some questions. Specifically, I'd like to see a mock-up of how the discussion might look if the rubric were to appear directly below the prompt--and would its new location make it more difficult for students to locate the "Reply" field, especially if prompts are lengthy? (On a side note, another feature idea about to open that deals with the location of the Reply field vis-a-vis the search field: ).

My quick search didn't reveal the existence of a previously submitted feature idea of this nature, so unless someone else can find one, I would expect your idea to be moved forward for Community consideration in the next voting round.

[DaleDrees]

Agreed!

This has been a topic around our campus for the last week. Students and faculty do not know that they have to click on the little gear at the top of the page to view the rubric. The rubric needs to be displayed somewhere on the discussion page without having to look for it. The rubric displays nicely under the Assignment instructions but may not be the answer for Discussions. It might be nice to have a button or a link that a student sees when viewing the Discussion instructions that says Show Rubric.  

Thanks  @isaac_piercy ​ for recommending this!

[tschaelen1]

Instructors on my campus (new to Canvas) have been asking for this, too.  It is puzzling to us why the rubric displays for assignments but not for discussions, and this inconsistency seems like it could be easily fixed.

[kmeeusen]

Tracy:

Like you, I am not a fan of inconsistency. I know that it often happens in very large and complex software, and that it happens because different teams work on different areas, but I often find myself wishing that Canvas had someone who's job title included Consistency Police!

However, that is one of our roles as Community members, and I know that the product team listens when we point out those inconsistencies. Typically, when a feature gets an overhaul, you tend to note way less inconsistencies in its new iteration.

KLM

[bbierly]

I am not sure why we would want anything else.  Rubrics are important for helping the students to know what constitutes a 'complete' assignment, and what a quality submission would look like.  My experience has been that students don't always look at the rubric, possibly because it is difficult to find/open.  So, this would answer that concern.

[DaleDrees]

So Close - 82 votes!!! come on 100

[sujones]

(except it's 'past due' and in 'archived' status now...)

[DaleDrees]

Overlooked that one completely!

[Renee_Carney]

This idea is one of the lucky ones that was selected to get a little more time for voting as part of our evolution of the feature idea process.   It was selected because of it's vote count and/or comment thread.  

*Selection criteria: Most (not all) ideas that received 70+ votes in their initial voting round.

[DaleDrees]

Great to see the voting extended on this one - Would love to see an improvement on viewing the rubric as a student!